My! What a big trash can of sketches you have!

It seems like I posted Reggie the homing pigeon weeks ago! Since then I have crumpled up one sketch after another. Remember all those great inspiring ideas I had during camp? Well, since I couldn't paint all those weeks I completed the paintings in my head, and I should have remembered that once I have completed an illustration in my head, it refuses to come out on paper.

So I went in a completely different direction. I love golden age illustration and I love the classic fairy tales, so I decided to illustrate Little Red Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm.

This drawing was really difficult. I erased and erased. I wanted the wolf to look monstrous, but I didn't know if he should be sitting or standing, paw out, or paw down. So I tried them all. This is my first illustration with a child in it, so I had to work to make her look right. I made Casey stand and hold flowers behind his back. We argued over the size and length of her arms and all sorts of other things. I had to remind Casey that even though he was my model, that a little girl's body was much different than his :) He did help me eventually get her right.

I also wanted to include the surroundings from the story: dense woods, a strawberry patch, big white daisies and a path to grandma's house.

The drawing finally came together after 3 days of working on it a couple hours at a time. I took the drawing into Choice Printing to get it scanned because it was too big for my scanner. Today I finished the painting, but I will have to post it later after I get it re-scanned in town.